Vow
by Julia451
Summary: Post-"Family on the Edge" one-shot. He had vowed never to let anyone hurt him. In the end, he kept his word. Heather tells Hiccup something she once heard about Dagur. MAJOR SPOILERS


They woke up the next morning to find thick, gray clouds still hanging over the island, occasionally lit up by a fresh bolt of lightning, while the rain could never make up its mind whether it was done falling or not. Normally, this would have caused at least three individuals to complain about how bored they were and another three to fear what destructive means of indoor amusement they would concoct, but today was an exception – nobody had any desire to fly or train or blow things up. Those who had no notes, maps, or statistics to study (that was, everyone but Fishlegs) were content to do whatever chores Astrid said needed done while waiting for the storm to pass for good. Nobody talked about their narrow escape yesterday, what they had seen, what foolish hopes they were still entertaining, or the shock, guilt, and gratitude that had kept them up half to all of the night, as if they were on unstable ground that would give way if they made too much noise.

No one saw anything odd in Hiccup and Heather stepping outside during a break in the rain, but more than a few eyebrows were raised when the calls of the Night Fury and the Razorwhip were heard fading into the distance, obviously leaving the island. Astrid ran to the window in time to see what direction they were heading in. Nobody suggested going after them – it was understood without discussion that the two of them were the ones affected most deeply by this ordeal, bound by a personal, sacred grief none of the others could share. Let them comfort each other any way they could.

The wind was picking up when the two riders reached their destination. In spite of the storm, the hunters must have worked all through the night – nothing was left but unsalvageable wooden and stone debris. No danger of being attacked – the mission was over; the hunters would not be coming back. The riders landed on top of a sea stack and dismounted, staring down at the water and cliffs below but not as if they were searching for anything. They weren't – they hadn't expected to find anything new, only felt an inexplicable desire to see the place where it happened after the smoke had cleared and the chaos was over. The sight did not make the sensation of unreality fade at all.

Hiccup was the first to speak. "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" Heather asked with a sigh. "This is all my fault."

"This was my plan. I fell for it."

"And I told you not to listen to him."

"I wouldn't have anyway," Hiccup told her. "I didn't want to lose this chance. I wanted to win so badly, I…" Instead of finishing that thought, he dove right into the next one that came to him: "That should have been me."

Heather didn't reply at first. The next thing she eventually said was, "He wouldn't have wanted that."

Not fully understanding that but not very concerned with doing so, Hiccup merely said, "I still don't get it. He could have saved you without… He didn't have to do this. Not this way."

"He had to if he wanted to stop us," Heather explained. "There was no other way to stop everyone. He didn't do it just to save me. He wanted to save all of us."

"Why?" Hiccup asked in the same tone of disbelief. "Did he hate the dragon hunters that much? Did he want make things up to us that badly?"

Heather sighed again before turning to him for the first time since they'd landed. "I think…" she started to say but stopped.

Hiccup turned to her as well. "What?"

"I think he did it for you. I think he wanted to save you – and the riders, because they're your friends – as much as me."

Hiccup would have laughed if the circumstances had been _any_ different. They both turned back to the sea. "Yeah, after what I said to him, I'm sure."

"That wouldn't have mattered. He would have made sure you and your friends made it, no matter what."

Did Heather know something he didn't? "Why do you say that?"

"I once heard him say… I mean, I heard he said…"

Hiccup waited, but when she said no more, he ventured to ask, "What?"

Hiccup expected she would tell him it was nothing and forget it, but instead, Heather closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn't speak again until she opened them: "During my time with the dragon hunters, I heard one of his men tell Ryker… you know he still had some of his old army with him when he joined them?"

"Yeah, I was never sure how that happened."

"He told me a lot of stuff after I joined him. I wanted to get as much information out of him as I could about everything. After he broke out of prison, he knew our cousin would never step down as chief of the Berserkers, so he didn't even bother to consider that. He didn't care about being chief again, he just wanted revenge against you. But he did go back and recruit some of the soldiers he considered the most useful and trustworthy, from the Berserkers and the Outcasts. Not many of them were interested but a few, I guess, figured their chances for survival were better _with_ him than opposing him and were happy to sign up for more bloodshed."

"One night, while we were sailing out of port, I was out on deck, and I heard one of the Berserkers talking with Ryker. Ryker never fully trusted Dagur – he never would have agreed to work with him if Viggo hadn't thought he could be useful against you. He was always asking the men he brought with him what they thought of him and me. This one, I guess, had decided it was better to stay on Ryker's good side than Dagur's…

" _I don't think it's a good idea to let him join you when you face Hiccup."_

" _Why?" Ryker asked in a tone that said it was the first time he'd ever heard such a thing – however questionable his loyalty to the hunters might be, as far as everyone knew, Dagur wanted nothing more than to kill the lead dragon rider._

 _The soldier hesitated, but he answered, "It… might make things complicated."_

" _What are you talking about? They're arch enemies, aren't they?"_

" _Yes, that's the point. If you send him in to kill Hiccup, you can consider him as good as finished, but if you try to go after him yourself…"_

 _Ryker was starting to sound annoyed (something nobody in this fleet liked to hear) when he asked, "What's the difference?"_

" _Ask Dagur. You didn't see him the night we found out Berk was training dragons."_

" _What happened?"_

" _We were all furious, now that we knew we'd been tricked. I said I'd like to kill the runt for lying."_

" _So?"_

" _So before I knew what hit me, he threw me against the mast, held me by the throat, and screamed in my face, 'NO! NO ONE hurts Hiccup._ _ **NO ONE!**_ _Except me.' "_

 _Ryker shrugged nonchalantly at hearing such a common story. "So what? You hear that once, you've heard it a thousand times."_

" _Not like this. He didn't just sound like a Viking hoping for a rematch with his rival. He sounded… desperate. Like he really couldn't bear the thought of anyone killing him."_

 _Ryker laughed, still unconcerned. "The man may be crazy, but…"_

" _Mark my words, you let him see you try to harm that boy, you'll regret it…"_

"I couldn't tell how accurate his story was, but he sounded serious. He had no reason to lie. I didn't think much of it at the time, not with everything else going on, but now…" Heather finally paused, but when no comment or question filled in the silence, she went on: "I don't understand how my brother's mind worked back then, but if it's true that he said that, and he meant what he said, then it's no surprise he did what he did yesterday. He wanted to protect you. He was still determined to do whatever it took to protect you and yours. I know he wanted to save me, and I'll never forget it, but I don't think he did it just for me. He promised he'd never let anyone hurt you, either."

"He kept his word." The firmness of his voice caused Heather to turn to Hiccup in mild surprise. _He_ didn't sound surprised – he sounded the way he did when a theory or suspicion of his was proven right. His head was bowed and his eyes focused as if they were staring at something she couldn't see – some memory, no doubt. "More than once."

Heather waited, but Hiccup didn't elaborate. Maybe she'd ask him about it later, but she had no desire to now. She simply said, "He did what he set out to do. He would have been glad we made it, Hiccup." She could say such things about him without effort or disbelief now.

It seemed to take a long time before Hiccup said, "This is the first time someone's ever died for me."

"Me, too."

"How do you thank someone for that?" The strike of metal against metal made him raise his head and turn to see Heather clutching her battle axe in both hands – the wordless equivalent of, _You need to ask?_ No. No, he didn't.

A particularly loud clap of thunder made them both look up at the sky. A keen awareness of all the metal they and their dragons were wearing made them decide it was time to remount and race the storm's latest assault back to the Edge. Hiccup couldn't wait for it to pass so they could get to work finding the information they'd need to take down the enemy responsible for today's tragedy.

They had a vow of their own to keep now.


End file.
